Tag Archives: President Trump

Is the Senate GOP is about to Ruin Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill?

By J Robert Smith

  • June 10, 2025
  • 2-min read

President Donald Trump wants to give middle-class and working Americans tax breaks. He pledged to do so during last year’s presidential contest. Those promises proved popular and helped elect him. Now, some Senate Republicans are balking. If they wind up gutting some of Trump’s most popular tax-cut initiatives from the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” they risk losing the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections. If the House flips to the Democrats, it’s game over. The final two years of the Trump presidency will end up like the last two years of his first presidency: marked by investigations, impeachment inquiries, and gridlock. The stakes are enormously high.

Politico is reporting (June 10) that Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) is leaning against “no taxes on tips,” “no taxes on overtime” and tax relief for seniors” – the latter refers to permitting seniors to deduct up to $4,000 annually in taxes on their Social Security pensions. Why Social Security pensions are taxed in the first place is the real question. Working Americans are forced by law to contribute to Social Security. When they retire, Uncle Sam then taxes their pensions. How is that fair?

North Carolina’s Thom Tillis is raising objections, too. Tillis voted to impeach Trump back in 2020. He’s clearly no friend of the president’s. Tillis is an establishment Republican. Does he have any feel for the struggles of working North Carolinians? Tar Heel State conservatives are likely to challenge him for renomination in 2026.

Making legislation is a messy affair. Compromises are standard. Making minor adjustments to accommodate senators are expected. But any changes that break President Trump’s promises to help tens of millions of hardworking – often struggling – Americans should be a nonstarter.

Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House. Passing the One, Big, Beautiful Bill largely intact is critical to the GOP holding their House majority next year. Senate Republicans should remember that as they mark up Trump’s signature piece of legislation.

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Trump’s Mini Slump is ending

By J Robert Smith

  • May 21, 2025
  • 4-min read

Nick R. Hamilton at Slay reports that Trump’s poll numbers are starting to trend up. He draws from Nate Silver’s polling data. Silver has seen Trump’s approval rise four points in the last month, give or take. But here’s the revelation: Expect Trump’s numbers to continue to rise, albeit modestly for a while.

Why? The economy is doing better. Employment is up. Prices are down, particularly at gas pumps and in grocery stores. This is happening as energy production is just ramping up and as Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill wends its way through Congress. Passage is anticipated by Independence Day, July 4. The C.R. contains a broad range of tax cuts that were scheduled to lapse but will be made permanent and newer tax cuts – elimination of tip taxes and taxes on Social Security payments. The measure includes other economic incentives, too.

Trump’s numbers are rising as the public learns more about the impact of his tariffs. Nations are negotiating to settle difference. Britain has just made a deal. Various enterprises in Asia and elsewhere pledge to site manufacturing facilities in the U.S. or increase investments here. Trump just announced $600 billion in investments from Saudi Arabia in U.S. concerns.

Trump also continues to work diligently to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. He’s seeking a negotiated end to Iran’s nuclear weapons program development. Unlike neocons, Americans want peaceful settlements of differences, not war.

Finally, in less than four months, Trump has effectively closed the U.S.-Mexican border, proving that Biden’s handlers lied all along about grappling with ways to end the tide of illegals into the country. In fact, everything that Biden’s White House did was to encourage millions of migrants to enter the country. It was a cynical ploy to build Democrat consistencies and voter bases.

Not that there aren’t challenges ahead for the president. The U.S. Supreme Court needs to shutdown lower federal courts from interfering with the chief executive’s right to deport illegals, particularly those deemed dangerous.

But, all in all, mid and longer term, the positives outweigh the negatives for Trump’s presidency. With critical midterm elections slated for November 2026, Democrats can’t be very happy about that development.

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